2017-05-04 Thu

“If you can’t be civil, please be quiet and seated” – Ty Howard.

United Nations declared 4th May to be the official anti-bullying day in 2012. Correos (official post of Spain) issued a beautiful and simple stamp in support of the anti-bullying campaign. It is a commemorative stamp worth 0.45 Euro released on 2nd February 2016.

The event was first celebrated by David Shepherd and Travis Price of Nova Scotia after Jadrien Cota, a 9th grade student was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school on his first day. They bought and distributed 50 pink shirts in 2007.

Following these events different countries proclaimed different days as “Anti-Bullying Day”: Nova Scotia- 2nd Thursday of September, British Columbia- February 27, etc. On 25th February since 2009 this day is also celebrated as ‘Pink Shirt Day’.

The US Department of Justice showed that every one out of four kids was bullied during their adolescence. A connection was discovered between being bullied and suicide by the Yale School of Medicine in 2010. The term to describe this is “Bullycide” where someone who is bullied commits suicide as a result. Suicide rates continue to grow among children and adolescents more than 50 percent in the last 30 years.